How Do I Know If I Have Repressed Emotions
Since there are no definitive tests you can take to know if you’re dealing with emotional repression, you may find it quite challenging to see if you have repressed emotions. However, you’re likely to notice a few key signs if you’re struggling with repressed emotions. These signs affect how you treat others and yourself, and they can be evident in your behavior or feelings.
Recognizing Emotional Repression in Your Feelings
Naming and understanding your emotional experience can be troubling when you’re dealing with repressed emotions. When certain aspects of your life don’t meet your needs, you may find it challenging to recognize that, and it can be tough to describe your feelings to others.
You may experience this:
- When someone asks you about your feelings, you feel distressed or irritated
- You never ponder on upsetting or insignificant things, and this makes you feel cheerful and calm most of the time
- When other people tell you about their feelings, you experience unease or discomfort
- You tend to forget things
- You never understand why, but you feel stressed, low, or nervous most of the time.
- You regularly think of nothing or feel numb.
Recognizing Emotional Repression in Your Behavior
The way you respond to others and the way you express yourself are how repressed emotions commonly show up. You might develop problems in your interpersonal relationships when your feelings get in the way, mainly when they get triggered by small things. Your built-up emotions can explode after you’ve been struggling to express them in a healthy way.
These are the abilities emotional repression can affect:
- Your ability to encourage or praise yourself
- Your ability to understand how other people feel
- Your ability to build intimate relationships
- Your ability to talk about things that matter to you
It’s also possible that you notice some of these things:
- Dealing with situations that upset you makes you exhibit passive-aggressive behaviors
- You avoid being alone by spending most of your time with other people
- You avoid feelings you don’t want to explore and stay numb by using social media, TV, substances, or other activities
- Rather than express what you really want and need, you go along with situations
Another plausible sign is often being referred to as “relaxed,” “calm,” or “chill” by others.
Is it Possible to release them?
A good first step is to talk to a mental health professional or a practitioner who practices EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). Suppose you find it quite troubling to express or regulate your emotions. You can enjoy guidance and support and have a safe space to learn more helpful methods of emotional regulation.
You can beef up your comfort level around talking about emotions and work on naming and understanding your feelings when you get therapy. Aside from treatment, a handful of strategies will help you manage your feelings effectively, and I will explain and explore them throughout my writing.
I have traveled through many different situations that have dealt with my emotions and brought them to life. I have hidden many different things deep inside myself over the last seventy years. Releasing them is a real accomplishment.